Passionate pet people love to talk about their canine companions. And the good news is that you can transform this passion into a bona fide money-making endeavor with the development of a dog blog.
Blogging allows you to share your interests and experiences with the world, so why not create a blog specifically around your four-legged friend?
If you’ve been thinking about how to start a dog blog of your own, here are five easy steps to help you get started and a few examples to inspire you.
Let’s take a closer look.
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How to Start Successful Dog Blogs in 5 Easy Steps
The best part is that dog blogs don’t have to be overly complex to start. In fact, you can narrow down what you need to do in just five simple steps. Whether you want to write a dog lifestyle blog or share news about dog food recalls, here is what you need to know to get started.
1. Decide on a Topic
The first thing you need to do as a dog lover who wants a dog blog is to narrow down what exactly you want to talk about. There are a couple of different ways you can go about this. First, you could narrow it down to a specific topic that you’re interested in and passionate about, such as:
- Dog training
- Dog nutrition
- Canine health
- Dog behavior
Some pet parents have knowledge in a specific field that could prove helpful to many dog owners who are looking to make their dog happy, better care for them, or even train them so that life with their dog is easier and more enjoyable.
Before you decide on a topic, you should do plenty of keyword research. This clues you into what people are really searching for online, moving blog owners from being dog lovers to actual business owners.
Tools like SEMRush can provide helpful information to let you know if you’re on the right track. This tool can also help you identify what the competition is doing successfully. See our full SEMRush review here to determine if this tool can help you enhance your dog blog.
Consider Starting with Dog Breeds
You could narrow down your niche to specific dog breeds. For example, some people are really passionate about Labrador retrievers and the amazing things these dogs can do. If you have a breed that you know fairly well and can offer advice tailored to these dog breeds, you might have a successful blog on your hands.
Talking of labs, if you’re looking to start a successful dog blog but don’t know where to begin, Matt Diggity’s course, The Affiliate Lab, can provide you with a proven system that has worked for hundreds of websites across various niches. Don’t waste time and money trying to figure it out on your own; join The Affiliate Lab and see results.
2. Get Your Website Up and Running
Once you have your niche narrowed down, you need to actually get your website up and running. A WordPress website is usually the best choice for dog blogs because it gives you more autonomy over the site. You can control every aspect of your website design and manage your money-making efforts, all from the user-friendly dashboard.
You can purchase a domain name from Namecheap (or get free domain names here). Make sure that the name of your proposed blog is still available before you launch a site. This is crucial for your branding.
It will be hard for people to remember your website if it’s different from the name of the blog itself.
Keep in mind that you will also need hosting, and you can investigate this through sites like WPX Hosting.
Here are ten easy steps to learn how to create a website for your business!
3. Create a Plan to Monetize Your Dog Blog
If you’re serious about running your pet health or dog training blog as a business, you need a clear way to monetize the platform.
One of the first things you may investigate is pet affiliate programs. These programs allow you to promote products for other people in exchange for a percentage of the sales and revenue generated by your audience.
You can monetize your blog by promoting items like:
- Pet insurance
- Online courses from dog trainers
- Pet food
- Pet beds and accessories
- Items related to dog care
You might also consider taking the same route as Garrett Yamasaki, who makes $4M annually after adding an Amazon FBA business to his portfolio. This is a more effective way to 10X your income from a blog when compared to what you would earn from affiliate marketing income.
4. Write SEO Content (Or Have Jasper Write it for You)
Of course, the most important aspect of running a blog is writing SEO content. You will have to write actual posts for your audience to read and learn more about dog health, training, or dog behavior. This is where the keyword research done with SEMRush can certainly help.
You’ll want to integrate those keywords you found into your blog posts so that search engines know what your blog is about and other people can find it.
Maybe you aren’t a strong writer, though. Fortunately, there are tons of tools that you can use to harness your knowledge and make it into an easy-to-read blog post. For example, Jasper is an artificial intelligence writer that can create content in minutes.
See our full Jasper review here to see if it’s the right fit for you.
5. Promote Your Dog Blog to Dog Owners
You have a great blog that’s ready to share with the world, but how will people find it? You need to do a little PR campaign to get your blog in front of others. This can be as simple as starting a Facebook group where you can share tips and tricks to improve dog health, allow people to ask training questions, and share links to informative articles.
Blog owners can also capitalize on other social media outlets like Instagram, TikTok, and X. Even Pinterest can be a powerful tool when it comes to marketing dog products or sharing your well-researched content.
Another way to get your name out there is by answering questions on forums like Reddit. You can provide links to your blog and hope that other people will find your answers helpful enough to want to learn more about what it is that you do.
5 Great Dog Blog Sites to Follow
Maybe you need a little inspiration for the type of helpful information people are interested in when it comes to their dogs. Here are five successful blogs about dogs that you can look to for ideas about what people want to know about their four-legged friends.
1. Whole Dog Journal
Whole Dog Journal certainly lives up to its name. This blog talks about every aspect of owning dogs. It covers issues related to dog food, dog training, and lots of content about dog health. They even have sections for lifestyle, puppies, and other niche topics.
If you think that you might want to expand in the future, Whole Dog Journal is a great source of ideas for what you can talk about.
2. Modern Dog Magazine
Modern Dog Magazine is another great option for anyone who wants to include all sorts of topics about dogs. They have a specific page for breed information, listing many of the most popular breeds and even some more obscure ones. Other topics found here include:
- Travel with dogs
- Celebrities and their pets
- Toys
- Art
- Food
- Wellness
- Photography
They even have a huge store full of products that enhance the lives of your pets. This is a great resource if you were thinking of starting an Amazon FBA business in addition to your dog blog, as we saw earlier with Garrett Yamasaki.
3. I Heart Dogs
From raising a puppy to choosing the right food for your pets, I Heart Dogs touches on everything you need to know to integrate a canine companion into your family. It features the latest information, such as dog food recalls, breed-specific information, and trending topics related to your pup.
They even have special sections for senior dogs, puppies, and trending topics in pet wellness.
4. The Other End of the Leash
If you want to know more about how to best train your pet, Patricia McConnell is a Ph.D. and a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist who writes about training techniques. Her blogs at The Other End of the Leash are informative, but they also set her up for her real money-making endeavors: courses and books.
This is a great model for those who think that they may want to expand beyond the blog into more specialized topics. McConnell has several books as well as seminars you can attend to learn more about a healthy relationship with your dog.
5. The Wildest
Get ready to learn more than you ever thought possible about your pup. The Wildest covers every aspect of life with your pet, including tips for healthy living, animal advocacy, behavioral issues, nutrition, and health.
Their extremely informative articles should give you a solid jumping-off point for your own blogs.
The Wildest is also a great model for affiliate marketing. Their “Shop” section compiles some of the best items for specific needs on Amazon and across the web. This is another way to show how your articles can play an important part in your overall monetization strategy.
Final Thoughts: Starting a Successful Dog Blog
No matter what you want to write about in relation to your pet, there are tons of ways you can monetize and earn money from what you love, namely, your dogs. In just a few steps, you can get your site up and running. Take inspiration from some of the other leading blogs out there so you know what features will resonate with your audience.
What’s holding you back from starting a successful dog blog today?
